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MAURICE SENDAK
Maurice Sendak is the widely
acclaimed American children's book author and
illustrator. This critical study focusses on his famous
trilogy, Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen
and Outside Over There, as well as the early works and
Sendak's superb depictions of Grimms' fairy tales in The
Juniper Tree.
L.M. Poole begins with a chapter on
children's book illustration, in particular the
treatment of fairy tales. Sendak's work is situated
within the history of children's book illustration, and
he is compared with many contemporary authors.
This
new edition includes a new introduction, a new
bibliography and many more illustrations.
MAURICE
SENDAK, born in 1928, has become America's premier
children's book author and illustrator. He's as
important - and as adored - as Theodore Geisel (Dr
Seuss). Best known for his trilogy of classic picture
books - Where the Wild Things Are (1963), In the Night
Kitchen (1970) and Outside Over There (1981) - Sendak
has also written many other books (though mainly in
children's book form). His interpretation of the Grimm
Brothers, The Juniper Tree, although it is less
well-known, could be said to be his most accomplished
work.
This book aims to consider some of Maurice
Sendak's most significant works, concentrating on the
children's books and the picture books. Other chapters
explore Sendak's relationship with the movies and art of
Walt Disney (which Sendak admires); his interpretation
of classic fairy tales; a brief consideration of the
fairy tale form; Sendak's links with the tradition of
children's book illustration; and finally a comparison
of Sendak's art with that of other book illustrators.
The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature offers
a typical assessment of Maurice Sendak as one of the
highpoints of modern children's book illustration:
Quite apart from his outstanding draughtmanship and
mastery of styles, Sendak's exploration of the realms of
the unconscious in Where the Wild Things Are and its
successors lifts his work beyond the confines of the
children's picture book and places it among major art of
the 20th century.
Joyce Whalley and Tessa Chester
write of Sendak:
Sendak's superiority amounts to far
more than mere technical ability and an instinct for
interpreting a text, whether his own or that of someone
else. His sympathy and concern with every book he
illustrates mounts to an almost religious obsession when
it comes to his own picture books... His vision is
unique, his draughtsmanship par excellence, and his work
as a whole lifts him well into the ranks of the great
illustrators of all time.
Lee Kingman is equally
laudatory, calling Sendak 'a magician who, working on
several levels simultaneously, creates a world of
carefully wrought surfaces and spaces dense with
suggested drama.'
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